You know you're AvPD when...

When being around people cuts into your being-alone time and makes you feel like you're missing out on something satisfying because being alone is much more fun than being with anybody.

... you last saw your closest friend 6 months ago

... Halloween is your least favourite occasion. You're not invited to any parties, as usual. So you stay at home alone, as usual. Only this time the door's going every 5 mins and if you don't answer they'll teepee and egg the house. The horror!

... you drive a wrecked car caused by other people's faults, and you're too scared to bother with insurance claims, body shop repairs etc. Now your Audi's worth £500

... it's getting dark, someone turns on the lights in the room and you dive for the window blinds to close them right away

... a coworker is being cold and distant, so you despise them. Only to suddenly warm up to them when they start being nice to you again

... a public restroom might aswell be an amphitheatre with a spotlight focused on your urinal

... you panic when someone asks "got any plans for the weekend?"

... you pull into your drive and some people walking up your street makes you nervous. Better wait in the car until they pass.

... you'd rather walk 12 miles home alone, drunk, at midnight, than get a taxi even if you can afford it

... a dog barks at you as you walk past and think "even that dog hates me"

... you go without having a cigarette cause you lost your lighter and can't ask someone to borrow theirs

... months, or even years, of your life have been forgotten because you've done nothing

.. you ALWAYS feel alone and empty

... you type up drafts of responses and never submit them

... you feel like everything you've said has been said before and others will accuse you of copying

... your webcam has duct tape over it

... you feel bad for bumping this ancient thread but wanted to make a first post on your new account anyway. Hello all!

First post here. I thought I'd put it here, as I like these "You know you're..." threads. They make me laugh in a sad, "I know your pain " kinda way. Plus I need a rant.

-You're 26 and still live at home with your dad. It used to be your mum aswell, but she died earlier this year...and now you're stuck with your ignorant, worthless piece of sh*t father, who is an unsympathetic bully and makes no effort to even try and understand your problems. God I hate that man.

-You'd move out...except you can't afford it...because you only have a crappy part time retail job...nor do you have a girlfriend to pool your resources with...but who'd want to date you anyway.

-You secretly wish that everyone who cares about you would die, so then you can finally end it all without leaving anyone behind to mourn you. Does that make me a bad person? I dunno...

Now for some light hearted ones.

You get an adrenaline rush when you submit this post.

The window cleaner comes to your house, only you don't have time to close the curtains without it being obvious. So you go and lay on the floor, in the hallway, below the only window in there, so he can't see you, and wait til he's gone...then you feel utterly retarded for having done such a ridiculous, childlike thing. Yes I actually do that.

When your boss at work borrows your knife to break down some boxes...only he forgets to give it back and goes to the office. So for the next hour you manage without your box opening knife, trying to work up the courage to get your knife back. FINALLY you go get your knife back, and he's like "Sorry mate, here you go"...and you feel like you've just conquered a Herculean task. *Sigh*

Apologies for the long post. I hope it made some of you chuckle.

When you invite someone to go out to eat/bar/hang out and they turn you down and you're backtracking through the conversation and the mental pictures of their expressions trying to find out what words you ###$ up on and you verbally punish yourself because you're such a failure.

Hello - this is my first post and I thought this was as good a place to start as any!

You know you're AvPD when:

You barely see anyone for weeks on end and most of your meaningful interactions are via the computer!

You come up with all these wonderful plans and fantasise about them rather than carry them out.

You worry about whether or not your forum posts make you sound daft.

You can spend literally hours lost in complicated day-dreams which are way nicer than real life.

There are loads more but that will do for now, I guess!

You wear headphones with no music in public so no one comes up to you. Then you bum out that no one came up to you.

When you really fancy a Subway sandwich, but you're too scared to go get one in case the person behind the counter judges you for what you want in your sandwich.

When you don't like collecting your medication, because you're certain the pharmacist judges you for being on antidepressants.

When its nearly that dreaded time of year again - the time of the cursed 'Christmas party' at work. You must desperately think of an excuse not to go, because as well as AVPD, you have EXTREME social anxiety and are just a complete social cretin. Honestly, I think I'd rather saw my leg off with a teaspoon than attend. Hey, now there's a good excuse...

You know you're AvPD when...

1. You cancel a class at university because you see you have to do an oral presentation.

2. When the food delivery guy arrives with the pizzas you run into your room and hide until he leaves and let your roommates deal with him.

3. There is an event organized at the university by your friends so you try to go and when you walk by the room they are in you see 15 people, 5 of which are some of your good friends and 5 others are people you like but you simply walk by and leave to go home because you are certain they don't want you there and you don't feel like you should be there.

4. You install Tinder on your phone to meet people and when you don't get matches you are certain that people think you are ugly and boring, but when you get a match you are so scared that you close the app and never talk to that person thinking that they probably liked you by mistake.

5. When you are playing an online game on your computer and someone starts talking to you, you simply ALT+F4 because you are too scared to talk to people over the Internet.

6. Whenever the teacher asks questions, you never raise your hand even tough you have the correct answer 99% of the time||| OR ||| Whenever you don't understand something you never ask the teacher or other students to explain it and just end up missing on some key knowledge in that class.

7. Whenever you go out at parties, you drink to be able to talk to people but you always end up drinking way too much and the next day you feel like you have made a fool out of yourself and wish you never did go out.

8. being so scared to post this as it is your first post ever on this forum.

ephemer wrote:You know you're AvPD when...

as soon as you said something you think "what a dumb thing to say, I should have kept quiet"

...and forty years later, you're still remembering every single dumb thing you've said and cringing in horror at each one. Sometimes it hurts so much you flinch visibly, someone asks you what's wrong, and of course you say something dumb.

Based on a true story.

You decline an invitation to go to a social gathering

...Only to see photos on Facebook the next day showing what a great time people had and knowing you could have had just as much fun if you would have gone, and feeling completely empty and left out.